I love Consumerist. If you’re not reading it, you should be. For a sample, here’s their top 17 most-useful posts of 2008.

It’s holiday time! We got the Christmas Tree yesterday morning — free plug: we love Medway Gardens — and this morning we’re setting about decorating it.

It’s important to have the roaring fire to set the mood.

Lucy is playing with (and occasionally eating) her Santa hat.

And Sadie, for the first time, is really helping to decorate the tree.

Loads of fun for everyone. Very merry.

Sadie’s starting to get the hang of some more adult things, like talking on the phone…

The monster will soon be on the loose. She’s not there yet, but Lucy is getting ready to crawl. Of course, she’ll start to crawl just as we have the Christmas Tree up. I sense a blizzard of “No’s” on the way.

The kitties will get to know this face up close and personal.

I’m going fast and furious on Serendeputy, A. is insane with end of the year stuff at her job, and the girls are growing very quickly. It’s hard to keep up with pictures, but I will try.

Sadie’s getting very big, now that she’s three. All the nuisances of toddlerhood are pretty much gone, and she’s a fully functioning little girl now.

Lucy is doing very well sitting up — not crawling yet, but that’s right around the corner. She sits on the rug and watches everything we do.

Sometimes she gets really excited (and a little manic) — especially when she’s playing with her turtle and baby buffalo.

She’s also really good about sitting on the chairs. She loves being up high, especially if there are kitties nearby.

Sadie’s not sure what to do when she sees Lucy playing with (i.e., eating) one of her toys, in this case, her baby doll Unc.

Sadie can usually figure out how to express her displeasure.

But, then, as always, all is forgiven. The two sisters love each other.

Ok, so my little product adapts itself to what you actually do, as opposed to what you say you do. So, though I wouldn’t have predicted this, it’s recognized that I click on every single item on the Fail Blog. Today’s Ad Placement Fail is especially funny.

Sadie and I were screwing around in the front of the laptop. We took this picture. It’s kinda cute.

Sadie and Lucy got to spend some time with Auntie Amy last weekend. Sadie decided to become queen of the flying trapeze.

Mostly, though, she loved playing in the leaves. They have far better leaves there than at home.

The real winner in this election has be fivethirtyeight.com. It’s baseball-inflected combination of common sense and smart statistical analysis has made it more of a go-to resource than any of the mainstream-media sites.

I just went down to Holliston High School and cast my ballot. There were lots of people there, but the lines were flowing easily; I was in and out in five minutes. Holliston (and maybe all of Massachusetts) uses tried and true paper ballots — no Diebold touch-screen madness here. It turns out that the paper ballots make all the lines move much faster. Ben Adida explains.

Anyway, regardless of who wins, I hope that America is a more unified country tomorrow, and we can all get on with fixing what’s gone wrong.

Last year, Sadie went out for Halloween as Sadie Lou Who. This year, she went as a grasshopper.

Sadie thought that it hardly seemed fair that we had all this candy already in the house, yet she needed to go out trick-or-treating to find some for herself.

Lucy decided to dress up as a giant octopus-eating baby. Maybe next year we’ll get more ambitious with her costume.

Lucy and I took a little trip to Holliston Pediatrics this morning. We are very happy that — for the first time in weeks — Lucy appears to be finally free of ear infections.

Lucy has an extremely loud voice. Even when she’s cooing, it sounds like we should all duck and cover. The logarithmic decibel scale has trouble keeping up with her.

Plus, baby loves the metal. We may have another Joan Jett on our hands.

Sadie has inherited my fine hair. While very pretty, it sometimes succumbs to the ravages of static electricity.

One of the advantages of having an enormous baby is that she can do some things far earlier than other babies can. Like swinging on the swingset. This happy little baby likes nothing more than swinging in the backyard watching everything that’s going on.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I have become the world’s worst blogger. I’m heads-down working on Serendeputy right now, and the children keep getting sick, going through major school transitions, etc. Alas. My writing schedule has suffered.

At least I’m still getting sleep. Somewhat. Getting through the first year with a toddler and a newborn is the hardest. The good thing is that we are already more than halfway through it!

I’ll be happy when the election is over, and I can stop paying attention to all the news coming over the transom. That’s the downside of building a personalized news application — it keeps coming at me with stuff of interest. It’s like crack. I don’t have time for crack right now, though.

As most of you know, I left Boston.com a few months ago to work on a different project, called Serendeputy. I’m heads-down writing the software for the initial release (in case you’ve been wondering why it’s been a little quiet in these parts). I hope to have something useful to show by the end of the year. I’ll post updates here as I make progress.

I’ve also been writing some longer pieces over at the Serendeputy blog, which you might not have seen. Here are some of the better pieces:

Stack Overflow is pretty impressive
Progress Update — 9/15/08
Fan Mail: Twit Podcasts
Book Review: The Dip, by Seth Godin
SmugMug and Amazon Web Services

I’ll try to link over to that blog every once in a while for stuff that might be of general interest. Or, you can subscribe to the Serendeputy rss feed.

I hope to come up for air soon…

Lucy’s never been through a pennant race before. I’ve been explaining how it all works, telling her fabulous stories of Papi.

Most important: dressing the part. I’m in my lucky Trot Nixon jersey. Lucy’s in her lucky Red Sox dress and bloomers.

It took us a while to pack. It turns out that 50 pounds of children need to carry with them 80 pounds of crap. Because, the world will end if our giant stuffed panda doesn’t accompany us to the vacation spot.

Once we got all our gear down there, we spent most of each day down at the beach.

At the beginning of the week, Sadie was pretty scared of the water, so we spent most of the time up on the beach, often playing with the frisbee.

And then, often chasing the runaway frisbee down the beach.

Later in the week, we got up the nerve to walk out on the flats at low tide.

That’s pretty exhausting, so it’s good that were always smart enough to pack a snack.

Sadie then worked up the nerve to get into the water.

It’s kinda fun playing in the water. All sorts of interesting seaweed.

Splashing Daddy is serious work.

When we were done with beach, Sadie had a great time playing around the cottage.

Everything’s more fun with a pink balloon.

Sadie did a lot of work with the spelling games — Boggle and Upwords. She likes asking us how to spell out words and then putting them out on the board. Lucy didn’t quite see the point.

Lots of fun.

She can’t wait until next year.

And, this was a tweak gone awry. I was playing in Photoshop cropping on the pictures, and I somehow managed to do something weird with the output. Anyway, I like it. It kinda looks like a painting. (It’s the same picture as the first one in this entry)

I have a couple of videos I should be able to put up later this week or next weekend.

We went down the cape for a few days earlier this month. This was our first real trip with both of the children, and we survived, so that’s a good thing. Lucy didn’t really understand what was going on — it was more of the same for her.

When we got down there, we took a quick trip down to the beach to introduce Lucy to the joy of Cape Cod Bay. She was excited to try out her new sunhat.

We also worked to introduce her to some of the local wildlife. Here she is trying to roll away from a rogue lobster.

Lucy is trying to work on her sitting up and balancing. She was practicing in her exersaucer.

And in her boppy…

And on the couch…

We had her working on her tummy time, trying to improve the neck strength.

She enjoyed playing with Sadie’s baby doll, Unc.

And, by playing with, of course, I mean eating.

And mostly, she was being a sweet little baby.

Sadie’s pictures are coming soon.

Sadie wasn’t feeling great yesterday, so we keep her out of school for an unplanned “Daddy and Sadie’s Day of Fun.” We ended up outside with a good round of playing with the bubbles in the haze.

Ok, so it’s less haze, and more my cropping tightly a picture I took from fifteen feet away with the camera on my phone. It’s like an impressionist painting of a little girl blowing bubbles.

Lucy is now big enough to spend some time in the exersaucer. She’s not totally on board with it yet, but Sadie’s kind enough to show her the ropes (and the trains).

Lucy’s trying to play with the toys attached to the exersaucer. This little spinny thing is especially fascinating.

Mostly though, she likes to gum the plastic and flirt with the camera.

Sadie’s school had a special Family Fun Day at Lookout Farm in Natick on Saturday. Sadie enjoyed seeing the animals and the magician, but she really liked riding on the caterpillar train with her friend.

New York Times writer Mark Bittman gave an excellent talk at the TED conference talking about our food chain and its implications.

Bittman’s cookbooks — How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian — are in heavy rotation here at the Butler household. They are the best cookbooks we have. The Cook’s Illustrated ones are good, but everything in there takes forever to set up and cook. The Bittman books are far more forgiving.

My server fell off the web this morning due to a switch problem over at Dreamhost. I didn’t realize how much I required that server to be up until I have no email and no source control for the better part of a day. Grr.

Should be all better now. Please let me know if you’re seeing any remnant wonkiness.

Lucy was not amused when I described how she looked in this outfit.

Sadie got a higher hoop in the backyard this weekend, and she’s been doing her Garnett impression ever since. She needs to work a little on her arc, though.

Lucy likes playing outside with Sadie. It’s important that she wear her big floppy hat, though.

Lucy started school this week and A. is back to work. So, I’m back to doing dinners all by myself again, now with a 2-year-old and a baby. Fun! Lucy often ends up with a little time in the bassinet, staring at herself in the mirror and chatting with Elmo.

This weekend has been rainy, but a couple of weeks ago, we were all playing outside. Sadie really enjoys rolling on the big ball, even it ends up with her going head over teakettle.

Dear Internet,

We have a ton of baby stuff that it’s in really good shape. I don’t know what to do with it now that Lucy is outgrowing it.

Anyone have any suggestions for good ways to redistribute all the baby toys, clothes, monitors, swings, etc.?

Thanks!
Jason

Lucy has her first piece of Red Sox clothing, and she has the appropriate attitude to go with it.

She’s just praying that A-Rod messes with her.

Lucy requested that I post a more attractive picture of her, so I took her to my office upstairs where we can get a better webcam angle. Much nicer!

And yes, now that I work from home, I get incredibly dressed up each morning…

Lucy went in for her two-month checkup last week. She’s in the 95th percentile for height and in the 97th percentile for weight. She’s not quite sure what to make of the laptop, though.

If you haven’t seen it, you should check out what Alan Taylor has been doing on Boston.com. He’s put together a blog of some of the most compelling photos that have come over the wire.

It’s brilliant photography and an outstanding presentation. You should check it out.

Someone is very happy with my new working-from-home lifestyle.

I note with interest Susan Hunt Stevens’ new blog over at BoMoms: Practically Green. Susan is doing tons of things to really live green at her new home in Newton. She’s writing about what it’s like to live on the edge of these new technologies and mindsets.

She’s gone far further than we have, although we are trying to green as we go (Grawgo) — installing the compact fluorescents, upgrading the furnace, buying a reasonably fuel-efficient car.

I look forward to reading more about how she’s doing it.

Sadie had a lot of fun in Grandmama’s back yard on Saturday. Watch the video.

If the embedding doesn’t work, check out the original video on YouTube.

Whatcha gonna do when Lucy-mania runs wild on you?

Do you see this sleeper I’ve nearly outgrown? It’s labeled 3-6 months. I am seven weeks old. Obey me, or I shall unleash my butterfly hordes.

Lucy’s coming along well. She’s still not used to having Daddy continually snapping pictures of her, though.

Eventually, she gets used to it, and tries to humor me with a little smile.

Lucy heard a lot of Project Runway in the womb, and she is starting to become a bit more discerning about her fashion choices. She fell in love with this hat.

She’s learning how to play with her big sister. Mostly, she plays by sitting in the boppy and watching Sadie demonstrate the toys.

Mostly, Lucy eats. I have never seen a baby who eats this much. Here is she, politely telling me that she would like the bottle over there on the shelf. Now, please.

Bring me four ounces of milk every ten minutes until I pass out. Then every fifteen minutes.

Sadie had a lot of fun at Grandmama’s house this morning. She got to play out in the garden, saying hello to the frogs.

After lunch, we went inside. Sadie kicked the kitty out of the kitty condo. She had more important things to do with it.

We all hope to go back soon. All of us except the kitty, of course.

After three years, I’m moving on from Boston.com. My last day will be next Thursday. It’s been a great ride, and I think that we’re doing some really interesting things with the site, but it’s time for me to go back to the startup world.

I’m starting up a new project in June. It’s in stealth-mode right now — code for “I haven’t written it yet.” I should have something to unveil later this fall.

In the meantime, I hope to be able to write in this blog (and a new one I’m starting) for more often. My writing skills have atrophied so much that I can only write in bullet points now. It’s time to fix that.

Sadie likes her slide.

If you can’t play it from this page, click through to the original on YouTube.

With a two-year-old and a newborn, I knew that I’d need to invest in a swingset for the backyard. So, a couple of weeks ago, I went to Walpole Woodworkers and ordered one. It arrived early last week, and this is the first weekend Sadie’s been able to enjoy it. It’s safe to say that she is a fan.

When we run out of the backdoor and down the stairs from the deck, she always heads first to the swings. “Put me on the swing, Daddy.”

“Pull me high, Daddy.”

“Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

Sadie gets some good height.

After hours of swinging, Sadie likes to cap it off with a quick run or two down the slide. She doesn’t go down headfirst like her cousin Peter, but she gets some pretty good velocity.

I have a feeling we’ll be spending a lot of time out in the backyard this summer (and likely for the next ten summers or so).

Lucy is five-weeks old, so she still doesn’t have the greatest of head control. She loves spending some time just chilling in the boppy.

She finds it very zen.

Lucy spends a lot of time with her mouth open. What happens when everyone does their Lucy impression for the webcam?

As you’d imagine, the last few weeks have been pretty busy. At some point, I’ll pull together a coherent set of pictures and video, but for now, here’s a quickly shot this morning of Lucy, Sadie and me. Thank goodness for the webcam on the kitchen laptop.

Your crying is very important to us. Due to unexpectedly high child-cry volume, we are unable to attend to you right now. To help us serve you better, please choose your desire from among the following options. Please listen closely, as the options have recently changed.

Press one for “Boob”
Press two for “Send the baby back to the hospital”
Press three for “No, seriously. Boob!”
Press four for “Alleviate generalized sibling angst”

For all other requests, please hold on the line and continue wailing.

Your crying is very important to us….

They asked the children at Sadie’s school what they want to be when they grow up. The other girls want to be mommies, or ladies or mermaids; my little girl wants to play football. Hell yeah.

Maybe she’ll be the next Adam Vinatieri. I think she’d rather be the next Junior Seau, though.